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Death Note

Death Note (デスノート, Desu Nōto^?) is a Japanese manga series originally written by Tsugumi Ohba and illustrated by Takeshi Obata. The series primarily centers around a high school student who decides to rid the world of evil with the help of a supernatural notebook that kills anyone whose name is written in it.

Death Note first began as a manga series. It was first serialized by

Shueisha in Weekly Shonen Jump from the first issue in December 2003 to May 2006, with 108 chapters in total. The series has been published in its entirety in 12 graphic novels in Japan, and is currently in publication in North America. The series has been adapted into a pair of live-action films (released in Japan on June 17, 2006 and November 3, 2006 respectively), and an anime series which commenced airing in Japan on October 3, 2006. Also, a novelization of the series, written by light novelist Nisio Isin, was released in Japan on August 1, 2006.

Plot

Light Yagami is a brilliant, but bored, high school student who resents the crime and corruption in the world. His life

Death Note

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undergoes a drastic change when he discovers a mysterious notebook, known as the "Death Note", lying on the ground in the year 2003. The Death Note's instructions claim that, if a human's name is written within it, that person shall die. Light is initially skeptical of the Death Note's authenticity, believing it is just a prank. However, after experimenting with it and killing two criminals, Light is forced to admit that the Death Note is real. After meeting with the true owner of the Death Note, a Shinigami named Ryuk, Light seeks to become "the God of the new world" by passing his judgement on criminals.

Soon, the number of inexplicable deaths of reported criminals catches the attention of the International Police Organization and a mysterious detective known only as "L". L quickly learns that the serial killer, dubbed by the public as "Kira"(derived from the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "Killer"), is located in Japan. L also concludes that Kira can kill people without laying a finger on them. Light realizes that L will be his greatest nemesis, and a race to prove mental superiority between the two begins.

Rules of the Death Note

Written rules

Before releasing his Death Note into the human world, Ryuk wrote some of the rules on the first page in English, because he believed that English is the most popular language in the world. The rules written by Ryuk are the following:

• The human whose name is written in this note shall die.
• This note will not take effect unless the writer has the subject's face in their mind when writing his/her name. Therefore, people sharing the same name will not be affected.
• If the cause of death is written within 40 seconds of writing the subject's name, it will happen.
• If the cause of death is not specified, the subject will simply die of a heart attack.
• After writing the cause of death, the details of the death should be written in the next 6 minutes and 40 seconds.

Each volume of the manga has a page containing new rules or possible uses for the Death Note. In the anime series, each eyecatch contains a different rule written in both English and Japanese, similar to how they were revealed in the Japanese manga. Two new rules are revealed every episode.

False rules

In addition to these original rules, Light persuaded Ryuk to add a set of fake rules to mislead L and company.

• If the owner of the Death Note does not kill within 13 days of the last entry, he or she will die.
• If the Death Note is burnt, destroyed, or otherwise damaged in any way, all those who have touched that Death Note will die.